He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Psalms 23:3
The life of a sheep can be interesting to say the least. It makes all the difference when you have Jesus as your Shepherd. There will be times that are trying, seeming to test the limits of your ability to stand, to say nothing of taking the next step forward. Sometimes the wind is contrary to you and you find yourself in one of those storms of life that seem to come up out of nowhere.
Jesus told a parable about storms and, instead of sheep, we are represented by a house. Standing in for the shepherd in his parable is the foundation of the house. If the house is built on the Rock then you have Jesus as your Shepherd and for all others, their house is built on shifting sand.
Both of these houses faced the same “weather conditions”, as it were: the rains came and the wind blew with no regard for whether the house was on the Rock or on the sand. There was a difference in the end result of course — the house built on the Rock stood through all of the storms of life. We see in this parable a truth that you already know from life itself; being a child of God does not mean you will live a storm-free life!
For the sake of our journey today, we will define restore as “to return something to its original condition through repair or renovation”. That house that has weathered the storm, your life that is, will need some restoring, for it will bear the marks of the storm. When you take time in the presence of the Lord, He will restore your soul, He will renew your strength. The house that is your life will be better than its pre-storm self!
Some storms are unavoidable as there is much evil in the world and many who are followers of the evil one who cause storms that affect others besides themselves. The Lord is your Shepherd and He will always bring you through, no matter what evil comes your way. And afterward, He fixes you back up as good as new. He restores your soul.
Other storms could have been avoided but because of choices in life, you find yourself in the middle of some of those. Praise God for His mercy. God gives grace to the humble, so just bring your troubled soul before the Lord and He will restore you back to the place you were before so you can get your life back on track and press on.
Finally, there is the place that at times seems too far to come back from — when you realize you have sinned against the Lord. How can you make that right? How can you atone for your sin and get back to the place where everything is restored in your life as though it never happened? You can’t! That is something only God can do and something He has said repeatedly He wants to do. Jesus paid for your sin – confess it and let Him handle it.
He loves you so much He will remove your transgressions from you as far as the east is from the west. Only God can do that. He makes you new again, He restores your soul!
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